Fayetteville faces one of the most important elections in its history on Nov. 8.

This time it is not about any candidate. It's about the city's future and the place it will be for our children and grandchildren to find good jobs and be willing to stay here. Voting Yes to the Fayetteville Charter Amendment will convert four of our current nine single-member districts to at-large, resulting in every Fayetteville citizen having six people to vote for versus the current two. There would still be five single-member districts.

For the past 20 years, we have been struggling with a city council structure that rewards council members for thinking about the few hundred people in their gerrymandered district who voted for them, and too often ignoring the greater needs of the city. Our murder rates are at an all-time high, and the homeless are filling our city streets. Still, our council spends valuable time considering implementing a self-serving retirement plan for city council members to pay them $6,000 a year for life.

We are better than that.

Nine of North Carolina’s largest cities have at-large members as part of their structure. Other local governments in Cumberland County have at- large members, including the County Commission, the Board of Education, and the towns of Spring Lake and Hope Mills. None of those local governments are even considering converting to single-member districts. Does our recent history make us think that Fayetteville's city government has it all figured out and the rest of the state and our county are wrong?

A balanced structure that focuses on both district issues and the big picture is a far better structure for a city council. Fayetteville had at-large members as part of its structure until 2000. We find ourselves falling behind the rest of the peer cities in the state, competing for our children's future.

Over the last ten years, Fayetteville grew by 4% compared to other peer cities that grew four times as much. 20% of the people in our city live in poverty — 40% higher than those same peer cities. Our crime index is 38% higher than those same peer cities.

We are better than that.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of this has been the allegations of racism unfairly introduced by those opposing the change. Supporters of Vote Yes Fayetteville continue to be labeled as racists, even though there are 38% more registered Black voters than white Voters in Fayetteville. Vote Yes supporters, Black members of the city council, and other Black citizens who support the effort continue to be verbally attacked, even though our community for years has elected Black candidates in at-large seats, including the Mayor of Fayetteville, the Cumberland County Sheriff, Clerk of Court and members of the Board of Education and County Commission.

Race-baiting is the act of intentionally encouraging racism or anger about issues relating to race, often to get a political advantage. And it has
to stop.

We are better than that.

There probably is no better example of a city council structure that does not represent all of the city than the council's effort to keep the Vote Yes Charter Amendment from being placed on the ballot. Even though state law requires that citizens be allowed to vote on their structure of government once they have collected 5,000 signatures, the city council voted multiple times not to place the item on the ballot. In fact, they spent an estimated $50,000 of your taxpayer dollars to fight against your right to vote on this important issue.
It is easy to vote against citizens' interests when they cannot hold you accountable at the ballot box.

We are better than that.

You can make a difference on Nov. 8 by voting Yes to the Fayetteville Charter Amendment. We need more representation, not less.